(New York Post) A DRUNKEN, homeless man, whom cops say resembles Kriss Kringle, was charged last Saturday with attempted murder for allegedly pushing an elderly stranger onto the subway tracks in Harlem.According to US media reports, it was on the St. Nicholas Avenue line that cops say Rudralall Baldeo, 57, randomly shoved the 72-year-old man, leaving him clinging to life Saturday night with a fractured skull.
“The guy looks like Santa Claus,” one law-enforcement source said of Baldeo, a Guyanese man who earns change collecting cans and bottles. It is said that Baldeo appeared to be bewildered when the cops arrested him.
Reports in the New York Post newspaper said that Baldeo wore green scrubs and a slight smile as he was led out of the 30th Precinct station house to be booked and arraigned downtown on attempted murder and assault raps.
He has no history of violence or psychiatric treatment, cops say, and his only arrest is sealed.
Meanwhile, the victim, Shou Kuan Lin, remained in intensive care at St. Luke’s Hospital Center. Witnesses had jumped to the tracks to hoist him back onto the crowded northbound A and C platform before a train could arrive.
The New York Post said further that the injured man seems to be in a lot of trouble, and swelling around the brain seems not to be going down. As a result, doctors have drilled a hole in his skull to relieve pressure around the brain.
Baldeo it is said had been riding trains looking for recyclables Friday afternoon when he hopped off at 145th Street, allegedly mistaking it for 59th Street in his drunkenness.
He told cops at the 30th Precinct station that Lin fell accidentally and that he had said “excuse me,” to the victim right before.
But numerous witnesses insisted Baldeo inexplicably shoved Lin.
Random “subway shovings” by the mentally disturbed have become almost routine in recent years. Last December, homeless Erika Menendez allegedly shoved Sunando Sen, 46, to his death in front of a 7 train in Queens.
In December 2012, veteran burglar Naeem Davis allegedly shoved Ki Suk Han. 58, to his death in front of a Q train in Times Square.
Menendez and Davis have pleaded not guilty; their cases are pending.